Marine rescue on Lake Ontario

OLCOTT, NY - The Niagara County Sheriff's Office received a call of a boat in distress, west of Olcott Harbor, just before 10 p.m. Thursday.

Officials located the six occupants of the boat, who were in the water, about 150 feet from the shore.

"Right at around 10 o'clock ... a front came in, winds increased over 20 miles an hour, seas picked up between two and four feet, blowing right up on the shoreline," said Chief Adam Pedzich of the U.S. Coast Guard Niagara Station. "For small boat recreational traffic, it definitely picked up where it could be dangerous for them."

First responders were able to locate the victims by tracing a phone call one of them made. They quickly located where the boat was.

"They'll pretty much get a latitude and longitude within a few seconds," said Lt. Jeff Platt of the U.S. Coast Guard Buffalo Division. "It might not be the most accurate, (but) once they're online longer with the caller, they can rebid the transmission to get a better position and that's typically more accurate."

The boat sank, and was not salvageable. No one was hurt.

Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour tweeted about the rescue during the entire operation: